fading black
by dannachi
Summary: SasuSaku, wartime. After successfully healing Naruto, Sakura finds Sasuke. In a critical condition, he has yet to be healed…but Sakura is nearly out of chakra.


She sits amid a pile of debris, her chest heaving, the world blurring. She isn't sure how much chakra she has left, but she's never had so little in her life. All she sees are colors—blobs of colors: blues and browns and a lot more red than she'd like to see.

So when she sees a speck of black—

"Sasuke-kun?"

Yes, it is definitely him. Why is he on the ground? _Why isn't he moving?_ Sakura blinks. She blinks again. She can see the rise and fall of his chest, tiny as it is, and shaky legs attempt to run to him. She falls. She gets up. She falls. She crawls, hands and knees desperately clawing towards the dark-haired boy.

"S-Sasuke-kun…" she begins. Shards of rock are digging into her hands, her knees. "Please…"

When she reaches him, his eyes are closed, his eyebrows knitted together, his mouth stained scarlet. She immediately strokes his face— "Sasuke-kun, I'm here. I'm _here_." —and scans his body. It doesn't take to long to find the gash at the left of his chest, where the heart should be, oozing a scary amount of red liquid.

It isn't real. It isn't real. It _can't_ _be real_. "No," Sakura whimpers. "No. Sasuke-kun, hold on, you're going to make it, I'm a medic…" She swallows as she conjures the lasts of her chakra. It swirls inside of her, meekly flowing towards her fingertips. _I can do it_, she thinks. _I saved Naruto. I can save Sasuke. I _have _to save Sasuke._ She steadies her breathing—it's more of a rhythmic wheezing now—as she places her hands on his chest. A pale green glow emanates from her fingers. How long will it last? "Thank god," she whispers. "He missed your heart."

Tendrils of chakra attempt to mend the boy, to sew arteries and veins back together and coax the cells of a ruptured lung. She coaches him along the way, things like "Just keep breathing, Sasuke," and "We'll get through this together," and "We'll be back in Konoha before you know it." Hot tears grapple with her eyes, threatening to spill over.

When the green light starts to flicker, her heart jumps. Her actions become frantic, more desperate. _Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't. Stop._

She collapses, her body draped across his chest like it had been all those years ago in the Land of Waves. The dam bursts and tears flood out of her eyes, mingling with the pool of blood beneath them. A wail is tangled within her vocal cords, leaving her throat tight. "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," she whispers into his neck. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." A hand moves up and strokes his hair; though caked with blood, it is still soft.

She feels him stir.

"Sakura…" he mutters, eyes fluttering open. "You're heavy."

A surge of tears fall out of her eyes as she—she _laughs_. Slowly, she sits up, but even that is too much; she collapses once more, this time on her back. She and Sasuke lie next to each other, their breaths equally fatigued and grabbing for air. She's not sure whose hand grabs whose, but they hold on tight.

"Sasuke-kun," she breathes. "C-Can you…get up?"

A shaky breath is interrupted by a cough, blood spattering from his mouth. He disentangles his fingers from hers as his shaky limbs attempt to bring him to a sitting position—to no avail. He falls down with a grimace. It is useless.

She grabs his hand once more, closes her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispers once more. She must have bought him a few more minutes…they could stay like this for a little longer. Help will come. It _has _to. "I'm sorry I couldn't…"

"Sakura," he mumbles. She turns her head to face him; he has already done the same. With a look—his eyes soft, his mouth only a twitch upturned—she knows. His eyelids flutter shut once more, and Sakura feels the hot stab of tears again.

Is this it? Is this the end? This isn't the fate Sakura had planned for them. There would be no flowers, no awkward first date, no stargazing. No pet names, no pictures, no matching bracelets. No wedding bells. No kisses. They didn't even make it back to Konoha. Instead, they lie as if already dead, two broken people in a broken world.

She watches him. His jaw constantly tenses and relaxes; his eyebrows furrow and calm. She knows who he's thinking about—Itachi.

His face, beautiful face, begins to vanish as consciousness slips from her grasp. She struggles for consciousness, for life, for Sasuke. _Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake. _But she cannot help it that the world, the boy in front of her, are slowly, slowly, slowly…

With the meager remnants of her strength, she presses their lips together.

It is a slight touch, a caress. It is over in a second, yet Sakura's lips still feel the tingle…she savors it, grappling still with the dominating blackness. "Sasuke-kun…" she says like a child about to fall asleep, "I love you."

"Sakura." His face is blurring again, blurring into blacks and whites and red red red. "Thank you." Vaguely, she feels his lips meet hers once again, gentle still, as if the world around them wasn't ending. As if they were but twelve years old again, unapologetically innocent. A single tear cascades down Sakura's face, her last.

Sasuke is saying something—she can hear it—but her mind fails to make out the words as her body fails her and the world fades to black.


End file.
